Israeli prison allows homosexual conjugal visit for first time

Tarlan Hankishayev, jailed for falsely incriminating suspect in a 2009 gay youth club shooting, wins long fight for rights

Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter

Tarlan Hankishayev, center, the former state witness in the 2009 shooting attack at the Bar Noar gay youth club in Tel Aviv, at the Tel Aviv District Court on May 20, 2015. (Roy Alima/Flash90)
Tarlan Hankishayev, center, the former state witness in the 2009 shooting attack at the Bar Noar gay youth club in Tel Aviv, at the Tel Aviv District Court on May 20, 2015. (Roy Alima/Flash90)

Prison authorities decided Tuesday to allow a homosexual prisoner a conjugal visit with his male partner for the first time in Israel.

Tarlan Hankishayev, a former state’s witness jailed for fabricating evidence against a suspect in a deadly shooting at a Tel Aviv gay youth club in 2009, had had two requests for such a visit denied by the authorities on the grounds that there was insufficient proof that he and his partners were in a real relationship.

Prison regulations require that a partner in a relationship prove either that he or she is married or known as a partner in common law. Hankishayev and his partner had signed a joint declaration before a lawyer, but the prison authorities rejected it, claiming that Hankishayev could not be trusted because he had had a different partner at the time of the shooting.

In January 2016, the Beersheba District Court accepted Hankishayev’s petition that rejection of his request stemmed from discrimination because he was homosexual.

Hankishayev is serving a 65-month sentence at the Ramon Prison in southern Israel’s Mitzpeh Ramon for falsely incriminating Hagai Felician in the killings of Nir Katz, 26, and 16-year-old Liz Trubeshi during a shooting attack at the Bar Noar gay youth center on Tel Aviv’s Nahmani street on August 1, 2009. Police have yet to apprehend the shooter, who also injured dozens in the attack.

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